Six turnovers too much for Syracuse to overcome against Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh – Better late than never. That was the refrain outside the Pittsburgh football team’s locker room following Saturday’s 33-20 Big East victory over Syracuse at Heinz Field.

The Panthers (6-6, 4-3) entered the game ranked last in the conference with only 14 turnovers forced and a horrendous minus-5 turnover ratio (14-19).

“It’s probably been the biggest disappointment,” defensive coordinator Keith Patterson said. “As much pressure as we’ve been able to get on the quarterback ... man, I’ve never seen a team pressure the quarterback as much as we have that was unable to take advantage of those opportunities to turn the ball over.”

The pendulum finally swung Pitt’s way Saturday, as the Panthers forced six turnovers, their most since getting six in a 27-14 victory over Ohio on Aug. 31, 2002. They scored 20 of their 33 points off SU gifts.

“It’s a nail-biter otherwise,” safety Andrew Taglianetti said. “For us to get six and them to get one, that says it all right there.”

No question. The Orange, which entered the game with a plus-7 turnover margin (20-13), scored seven points off Pitt’s lone turnover, an interception defensive end Chandler Jones returned to the Pitt 28 early in the third quarter. Pitt’s first 10 points came following an SU fumble on the opening kickoff and a Ryan Nassib interception minutes later. Its last 10 came following Nassib fumbles, the second returned 20 yards for a TD by Pitt cornerback Antwuan Reed that clinched the victory.

Take away the points scored off turnovers and it was a 13-all.

“I wish it had started Game 1,” said Patterson, who arrived at Pitt in the off-season from Tulsa with head coach Todd Graham. “But today was a big day.”

“It was good to end it the way we should have played all year,” senior outside linebacker Brandon Lindsey said. “But you can’t change the first 11 weeks of the year. All we could do was win our last game and get to a bowl game.”

Lindsey played a pivotal role in making sure that happened. After Pitt scored a touchdown 10 seconds into the game after SU’s Dorian Graham somehow failed to cover a short opening kickoff even though he fell on it momentarily. With his team already up 7-0 he picked off a Nassib pass that was thrown directly to him.

“When I saw the ball coming to me I just didn’t want to drop it,” he said. “I just got my hands on the ball and didn’t want to drop it. That’s why I fell, just to make sure I held onto the ball.”

The pick set up a 37-yard Kevin Harper field goal, and Pitt was up 10-0 less than three minutes into the game.

“The coaches put me into the right position to make plays,” said Lindsey, who had walked off from his spot close to the line of scrimmage and drifted into the flat where he appeared to be the target of Nassib’s pass, as no Orange receiver was in the immediate vicinity.

Despite the horrible start Syracuse (5-7, 1-6) refused to go quietly and threatened several times to get back into the game. It had one last chance with 3:03 to play down 26-20 with the ball on its 6-yard line, and Lindsey came up with his second gem.

Nassib opened the drive with a 12-yard strike to Alec Lemon for a first down at the 18. On the next play he was flushed from the pocket and began going to his left. As he attempted to dump off the ball Lindsey came up from behind and popped it loose. It floated to Reed, who raced into the end zone untouched to end the drama.

“It was there,” Reed said. “I saw it floating in the air and I just ran to it. I knew we needed it, so I just kept running to it as hard as I could. Brandon had a great assist on that. He knocked it over, and I just caught it in the air and went to the house with it.”

Taglianetti picked off Nassib’s next pass for good measure, and the nail-biter was a comfortable 13-point victory.

Six turnovers for a team that had forced 14 in its previous 11 games combined.